Don’t blame the tablet computer for the demise of the ebook reader. Instead, look no further than aged users who are inconveniently - for Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble, Kobo et al - kicking the bucket.

That’s the claim made by ABI Research, a market watcher which has been tracking the ereader business for more than 10 years. ABI’s argument, derived from examining various territories and the people within them who buy these devices, is that most of the world’s ereader shipments are going into the US, where many of the consumers buying them are of ever more advancing years.